Modems are now a required component in a Windows-based personal computer (“PC”) according to Microsoft's PC99 specification. Given the increase in processing speed in PC's, the modem function is being largely implemented in software running on the PC processor under the Windows operating system. This is done in order to continue reducing the cost of the modem component and to provide increased flexibility of software upgrades.
The architecture of the software consists of driver software and a minimal hardware set. The hardware provides an interface to the host computer memory and to the analog phone line. An industry standard has been provided that defines the interface between the driver software and the hardware for soft modems. This standard is the Intel AC97 specification. This specifies a common hardware interface to any soft modem drivers. Given that the PC architecture is standardized and now the modem hardware is standardized, all that remains proprietary is the actual modem software. The bulk of the intellectual property for the soft modem is contained in the soft modem driver. Given that modems are required equipment for PC99 compliant PC's, and the modem is now essentially software, there is a risk of piracy for the vendors of the soft modem intellectual property. A typical business model for the soft modem company is based on royalties per copy. The problem is how to track the proliferation of copies of the soft modem drivers to account for royalty disbursements.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a solution for how to track the number of PC's that are utilizing a soft modem functionality. As a result, there is a need for a technique for authentication before the driver software will perform the soft modem function on a given codec (coder/decoder).